Introduction

While the Local Politics Working Group continues to experiment with the various it can take, the first order of business was just trying to hear what questions people had.

The following questions were collected at a TBC Thanksgiving Potluck on November 26th, 2016. As we answered the questions, a resource with a lot of potential for ongoing development began to take shape.

We tried our best to divide the guide into 4 sections (future versions may not maintain this way of categorizing answers).

Electoral Politics Questions: about those who represent you and how they do it

Research Questions: about how you can look up answers yourself and stay informed

Administrative Questions: about the more technical aspects of governance

Other Questions: do not easily fit in the other categories

There is also an appendix that includes the facilitator’s notes for the breakout session “Understanding and Resisting Gentrification as an Unwilling Gentrifier,” as this was a popular topic.